Drug-binding albumins forming stabilized nanoparticles for co-delivery of paclitaxel and resveratrol: In vitro/in vivo evaluation and binding properties investigation

Albumin has been regarded as the ideal drug carrier for delivering hydrophobic agents into cancer cells over decades. Combination therapy of paclitaxel (PTX) with resveratrol (RES) could enhance the sensitivity of multidrug resistance (MDR) cancer cell lines to PTX. In this study, novel paclitaxel/resveratrol co-loaded albumin nanoparticles (PTX/RES NPs) were developed to achieve synergistic anticancer efficacy and conquer paclitaxel resistance. The hybrid NPs had an average diameter of about 150 nm and an apparent negative surface charge of about −33 mV. PTX/RES NPs could be efficiently internalized by cells and exert synergistic combination efficacy of the two drugs, thus resulting in dramatically in vitro cytotoxicity even against MDR cancer cells. In vivo antitumor assay demonstrated that the antitumor effect of the hybrid NPs was superior to that of single drug-loaded NPs or free drug combination. Molecular docking analysis disclosed that the binding of PTX and RES to bovine serum albumin (BSA) was noncompetitive but the binding free energy of BSA/PTX dockings was significantly lower than BSA/RES dockings, which resulted in high encapsulation efficiency and sustained drug release profiles of PTX. In summary, the PTX/RES co-delivery system might be a promising strategy for combined anticancer therapy to overcome tumor drug resistance.